- Isn’t Easter weekend fun? Here at Trinity Church, Easter was indeed a great success. I hate posting numbers, but I’m proud of our team so I’m going to throw them out there. For 4 services this weekend we ministered to 743 kids and saw 53 kids attend for the very first time. Praise God!
- Easter also saw the launching of our new Saturday Night services. Having church on Saturday nights is going to kick my butt. Don’t get me wrong it was a great time, but my body just isn’t used to ramping up on Saturday nights. I was with Elementary kids and had a great time with a smaller group, about 60. I really need to find some volunteers to take that night for me, and I’m sure the job posting will be heading out there from HR any minute now.
- Every time I hear something about Saturday night church I think of this song…Is there something wrong with me?
- One of my favorite things about Easter services, is seeing new kids that I have no relationship with. It is so fun to meet new people, and make first impressions again. I know we have new kids every week, but Easter is unique in the shear amount of first-timers.
- I used “The Girly Dress Method” of reaching out to new kids all Easter morning. It’s classic, and gets a laugh 100% of the time. I even heard that it works in Austin, TX.
- I got my new Macbook on Good Friday. I got to hand it to the boys at Apple, cause they know how to package a product. I almost wanted to wrap it up and take it out of the box again and again. I’m learning how to work this Macbook, but it’s going to take some time. I feel like I’m driving a really fast car in a school zone…
- The more I lead people, the more I learn how dumb I am. How did I get put in charge of so many great volunteers and staff?
- I had a weird dream about a guy whose blog I read. It was really strange and related to one of his blog posts, so I decided he’d get a kick out of it and emailed it to him. About 6 hours later I wished I had kept it to myself. I’m embarrassed. He said it made him laugh, but I’m thinking he’s lining up the restraining order as I type.
- I need some new music to listen to, any recommendations?
- I am so excited about heading out to The Orange Conference in two weeks, but I’m bummed that I have to miss my 1st graders field trip to the Science Museum, and a Friday night baseball game with both the boys.
Tag Archive - Orange
My Big Bag of Nothing –Special Easter Edition
Orange Conference O’Deal of the Day
I’m so pumped about being at The Orange Conference the last week of April, and you can still join me; and others much more worthy of being joined! If you haven’t yet registered for The Orange Conference, then go do it NOW. In fact currently there are 2,909 people registered for Orange. Think about that, 2,909 leaders of children, teenagers, and churches coming together to inspire each other and our communities to reach families with the life changing message of Jesus Christ.
The big St. Patrick’s day news today is that if The Orange Conference gets 3,000 registered, then they are going to give the church that registers person number 3,000 four FREE registrations to the conference and to the pre-conference. And it’s your choice, they’ll either refund you the cost of 4 people or give you 4 additional passes to take more of your team. Somebody has to be the 3,000th person to sign up, right? Why not you?
This deal is only good today, so go register RIGHT NOW!
Are you ORANGE yet? Check out www.TheOrangeConference.com for details.
Orange Conference Giveaways
Hey Children’s Pastors! Are you going to The Orange Conference? If you aren’t then you should, and if you are then you should know about these FREE Giveaways that you may win just by attending The Orange Conference. Ya, I said it…FREE. Totally free, the only string attached is your attendance at The Orange Conference. This is what we in the real world call a GREAT DEAL!
Real-Fake Buildings (realfakebuildings.com)
Giving away a portable stage set for a family experience to one church. This is a $15,000 value. Churches can submit their written stories to the team onsite at the Real-Fake Buildings exhibit booth and they will partner with the staff of The reThink Group to select one lucky and deserving winner.
Clover (cloversites.com)
Giving away a website makeover to one church. This is a $1,000 value. The winner will be picked at random via drawing during the conference.
David C. Cook Publishers (davidccook.com)
Giving away resources for an adult small group study of your choice – either Crazy Love by Francis Chan or Revolutionary Parenting by George Barna – to three churches. This is a $150 – $500 value per prize. The winners will be picked at random via drawing during the conference.
Dare to be a Daniel (billygraham.com)
Giving away Dare to Be a Daniel 13-Session Training Resource for three churches or organizations. Dare to be a Daniel is a classroom curriculum that teaches “tweens” to stand for Jesus and share their faith. These are a a value of $229 each. The winners will be picked at random via drawing during the conference.
By the Book (bythebook.com)
Giving away a child check-in system to one church. This is a $567 value. The winner will be picked at random via drawing during the conference.
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AND don’t forget that @OrangeConf needs over 600 MORE twitter followers by the end of the day tomorrow for all new registrations to qualify for a $50 discount at registration. Make sure you FOLLOW @OrangeConf on Twitter!
Orange + Atlanta = ME
I am totally pumped about attending the Orange Conference in Atlanta from April 29 to May 1st. I attended last year, and I still have thoughts from some of those breakout sessions bouncing around in my empty head. It’s been a whirlwind of activity getting a chance to attend the Orange Conference this year, in fact it’s something that only came about in the last 48 hours.
The Orange Conference is an opportunity for churches to have their key leaders in a room together being challenged about what it means and what it takes to reach the next generation. It’s not a children’s ministry conference. It’s not a youth ministry conference.ORANGE IS THREE CONFERENCES ROLLED UP INTO ONE EVENT. It’s the only place that a senior pastor, student pastor, children’s pastor and volunteers that work within these ministries can learn together and begin formulating a strategy to impact the lives of the people in your congregation
Our church is a more than a few steps away from going in a truly family-ministry direction, but it is my heart to get there eventually. Since our church isn’t following the Orange philosophy 100%, the conference is a time for me to try and integrate those Orange activities that I can. I left last year with many ideas, that I was able to implement within the first few weeks back to Lubbock. I’m really excited about experiencing it all this year!
Here are my Pre-Conference and Breakout Session selections.
Preconference: CONCENTRATE: Random Learning’s from Thinking Orange
Breakout A:
Capturing the Heart of New Parents
Kendra Fleming
Isn’t it amazing how you can love someone so much who keeps you up all night, spits up on your favorite shirt, and screams in your ear? That’s the miracle of what happens in your heart when a baby is born. This beginning stage in a parent’s life will change them like few others will. Suddenly they are overwhelmed, intimidated, inspired for the future, and incredibly responsible. This breakout is about how we can seize this unique opportunity to partner with parents from the very beginning.
Breakout B:
Transition or Tension? Orangifying a Church with Tradition
Larry Thompson, Adam Duckworth
What happens when a 100-year-old church decides to go Orange? Listen in on a dialogue between a senior pastor and the already-Orange children’s pastor he brought in to lead change as they discuss the pivotal first six months of their transition to the new way of reThinking.
Breakout C:
Rules of Engagement
The Art of Communication
Reed Dickens
Mark Twain once said, “Noise produces nothing. Often a hen who merely has laid an egg cackles as though she has laid an asteroid.” Every communicator wants to be better at his or her craft. Unfortunately, in our attempt to become better, we tend to speak louder or longer, ignoring the chasm between speaking and communicating. Reed Dickens, former White House Assistant Press Secretary, regular contributor on Larry King Live, Fox News and MSNBC, and CEO of Outside Eyes, a multi million dollar consulting firm that specializes in media strategy and crisis management, leads this eye opening discussion on the art of persuasive communication, the goal of communication, keys to effective persuasion, non-verbal language, message training, and crisis communication.
Breakout D:
Training Parents to Raise Relationally Rich Kids
Carey Nieuwhof
So you’ve heard all about the “church” side of Orange—the “yellow.” Now it’s time to add the “red.” It’s time to equip parents for their responsibility at home. And that means helping parents raise relationally rich children. We’ll share the latest developments and thinking on the five parenting skills that were introduced at the Orange Conference and on the Orange Tour in 2008.
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Seriously, picking these were hard. I’d really like to get into the Breakout A -Partnering with Parents to Build Faith Skills; but it’s already maxed out. There isn’t another conference in the country with such a great variety of breakout sessions. In the coming weeks I’ll highlight some of the main sessions I’m looking forward to!
Is Orangerer a Word?
The conference this week has been fantastic! I've been challenged in an affirmative way, and can't wait to implement some of the ideas that God is birthing in me this week. My challenge is fitting what I'm learning into where I'm taking it back to; without compromising the integrity of the message. I can already tell that I need to pray more about all of it!
